RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



vincialate William obtained (January 1387-8) 

 from his successor at Knaresborough and the 

 friars of the house a number of privileges ; he 

 was to be exonerated for life from quire and 

 chapter, and upon giving up the office of pro- 

 vincial he was to be obliged to obey only the 

 provincial for the time being and none other in 

 the order ; in food, drink, and service he was 

 to be treated like the minister. The friars 

 granted him for life a decent chamber within 

 the cloister, with suitable sheets, napery, eight 

 silver spoons, a bason with a laver, ware and 

 other chamber necessaries, and a servant to be 

 fed and clothed at the expense of the house. 

 He also stipulated for a fireplace, 12 lb. of 

 candles a year, food and litter for one horse to 

 be kept with the horses of the minister and not 

 ridden without his leave ; herbage for 80 sheep ; 

 an extra horse and servant of the minister when- 

 ever he wanted them ; and loox. a year for his 

 other necessaries.^* Afterwards, Reginald de la 

 Marche, minister-general, appointed Robert of 

 York his vicar-provincial in England, and in- 

 duced Boniface IX to order the Bishop of 

 Durham to remove Pudsey from office.*' In 

 the contest which ensued the minister of 

 Knaresborough appealed to the secular power to 

 arrest Robert of York as an apostate.*^ The 

 pope however, in 1402, being better informed, 

 at the petition of the English friars reversed his 

 decision and restored Pudsey.*' 



In 1402 Boniface IX authorized the minister 

 and six other priests, secular or religious, deputed 

 by him, to hear the confessions of the crowds 

 who were wont to visit the church on the feasts 

 of the Holy Trinity and of St. Peter and 

 St. Paul.*' In the same year, the provincial 

 ministers and friars of the order in England 

 petitioned the pope that they might admit per- 

 sons under the age of twenty years to the order 

 and that instead of devoting one-third of their 

 revenues for the redemption of captives in the 

 Holy Land, according to their rule, they might 

 assign a quota for this purpose, as they had been 

 accustomed to do from time immemorial. The 

 pope gave a favourable answer to both requests.*' 



An indulgence of three years and forty days 

 was granted by the pope soon after this to 

 those who helped to support the friars of 

 Knaresborough.*" And on payment of a fee 

 John XXIII in 141 1 gave the minister, brethren 

 and sisters of the house the right to choose 

 their confessor.'^ Women as well as men were 

 admitted to the privileges of fraternity, which 



** Ca/. of Papal Letters, v, 5 5 1-2, exempl. of Letters 

 Patent given in the house of St. Robert, 5 Jan. 1387-8. 

 « Ibid. V, 573. 



" Chan. Warr. £161767, no. 21 (13 Feb. 1400-1). 

 *' Cal. of Papal Letters, v, 537 ; cf. 564. 

 "Ibid. V, S09. "Ibid. 550. 



" Harl. MS. 6969, fol. 85^. 

 " Cal. of Papal Letters, vi, 328, 335 ; vii, 492. 



appear to have been granted to many per- 

 sons."^ 



The friars were frequently charged with 

 encroaching on the rights of others, appropriating 

 the king's soil, blocking the roads and levying a 

 toll at Grimbald Bridge." In 1450 Richard 

 Faukes the minister obtained a crown lease of 

 the Little Park for twenty years at 41. a year, 

 and the friars seem to have retained possession 

 of this coveted area, in which the Dropping 

 Well was situated. They made a stone con- 

 duit from the well across the river to their house ; 

 this, however, had fallen into ruin before the 

 Dissolution." In 1440 William Emmote, butler 

 of the house of St. Robert, carried off Joan, wife 

 of William Glover of Knaresborough and goods 

 of William's to the value of 20f." 



Bequests to the house of St. Robert are not 

 infrequent in the 15th century ; thus in 1402 

 Sir John Depeden, lord of Healaugh, left them 

 5 marks; Sir John Bigod in 1426 a quarter of 

 corn ; °^ Alan of Newark, master of the hospital 

 of Sherburn near Durham, in 1411 left to the 

 minister 13^. 4^., to each friar being priest 31.4^., 

 to each friar not being priest \s. %d., and 6i. 8^. 

 as a pittance at the time of his exequies." 

 Richard III was among their benefactors,*' and 

 about 1490 Innocent VIII granted an indulgence 

 to those who gave alms to the friars of Knares- 

 borough.*' 



The brethren do not seem to have been dis- 

 tinguished by learning.^" In 1408 J. Foxton, 

 chaplain, made and gave them a Kalendar of 

 York use, with cosmography, prognostication, 

 &c., which is now in the library of Trinity 



" e.g. Robt. Browne of Heptonstall, chaplain, 

 in 1 5 1 8 left 6/. 8a'. to these friars ' to be a brother of 

 them, and have their privilege and pardon ' ; Test. 

 Ebor. iv, 88. The Earl and Countess of Northum- 

 berland c. 1500 were 'brethren' of the house and 

 gave 3/. \d. a year ; Northumb. Household Bk. 347. 

 John Dod and Matilda his wife were admitted to 

 fraternity in 149 1 ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. iii, App. 

 260 ; Yorks. Arch. Journ. xxiii, 145. Privileges 

 granted to others by ministers of the house ; Hist. 

 MSS. Com. Rep. iv, App. 183 ; viii, App. i, 415 ; 

 Bodl. Chart. Yorks. 65, 66. 



"» Duchy of Lane. R. (P.R.O.), 128, no. 1915 ; 

 Whciter, KnaresburgA and its Rulers, 42-3, 50, 155, 

 IS7-8, 180, 309-10, 314. 



" Wheater, op. cit. 36, 51, 163-4, 313 5 Leland, 

 Itin. i, 96. 



" Wheater, op. cit. 313; cf. 44. 



'" Test. Ebor. i, 297, 41 1. Only one burial in the 

 church seems to be recorded, that of Richard Plump ■ 

 ton, chaplain ; Wheater, op. cit. 275. 



" Wills and Invent. (Surt. Soc), i, 53. 



''Harl. MS. 433, fol. 29. 



" Bodl. Chart. Yorks. 65. 



™ The minister was ordered by the pope to examine 

 a candidate for the office of notary in 1403 ; Cal. of 

 Papal Letters, V, 559. Oswald Benson, the minister, 

 supplicated for B.D. at Oxford 1524 ; Oxf. Univ. Reg. 

 (Oxf. Hist. Soc), i, 1 34. 



299 



